What is better for the environment ? An operating rail or a rail trail?

Question

What is better for the environment ? An operating rail or a rail trail?

Answer 1

in the bigger cities the rail links are better get cars of the roads and moves people faster,as long as there are convenient pick up sites and drop off sites it will work.I know my friends in the bigger cities love then and myself to we will park at a pick up lot and within minutes we are downtown Toronto for shopping or sports event in what would have been 1-1.5 hours in the vehicle providing traffic was good

Answer 2

I suppose that decision is determined based upon route use and alternative route use. So the process is economics driven, to evaluate the needs of human and freight transport between points on the route. If needs are light, the rail trail is the better choice. Then only non fuel journey options are available. Therein lies the economics of scale. Also, since the corporate takeover of the government in the usa for profit, development of sustainable levels of infrastructure is unlikely. That goes against the profit driven cycles of business; take until it is broken and empty, move on to new resources.